Chapter 4

Question 1

If pay is to be based on work performed, some systematic method is needed to discover and describe the differences and similarities among these jobs—observation alone is not enough. What method is then used?

Answer 1

> Job analysis is that method.

Question 2

Two products result from job analysis:

Answer 2

(1) a job description that lists the tasks, duties, and responsibilities that make up a job; and

(2) a job specification that lists that knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that are necessary for an individual to have in order to perform the job.

Question 3

Job-based structures look at what?

Answer 3

> Job-based structures look at the tasks the people are doing and the expected outcomes

Question 4

Skill- and competency-based structures look at:

Answer 4

> the person

Question 5

However, the underlying purpose of each phase of the process remains the same for both job- and person-based structures:

Answer 5

(1) collect and summarize work content information that identifies similarities and differences in jobs,

(2) determine what to value,

(3) assess the relative value, and

(4) translate the relative value into an internal structure.

Question 6

What is the first step in the process of creating an internal job structure?

Answer 6

> job analysis and the resulting job description are the first steps in the process of creating an internal job structure.

Question 7

What does job analysis provide?

Answer 7

> Job analysis provides the underlying information for preparing job descriptions and evaluating jobs.

Question 8

The content of the job is identified in what way?

Answer 8

> The content of the job is identified via job analysis; this content serves as input for describing and valuing work.

Question 9

What is a job analysis?

Answer 9

> The systematic process of collecting information about jobs that identifies similarities and differences in the work.

Question 10

What are job descriptions?

Answer 10

> Summary reports that identify, define, and describe the job as it is actually performed

Question 11

What is job evaluation?

Answer 11

> Comparison of jobs within an organization

Question 12

What is job structure?

Answer 12

> An ordering of jobs on the basis of their content or relative value

Question 13

What are some major decisions in job analysis?

Answer 13

> Why perform job analysis?
What information is needed?
How to collect information?
Who should be involved?
How useful are the results?

Question 14

What are some examples that show the potential uses for job analysis that have been suggested for every major human resources function?

Answer 14

> Training programs may be designed with job analysis data;

> jobs may be redesigned based on such data.

> In performance evaluation, both employees and supervisors look to the required behaviours and results expected in a job to help assess performance.

Question 15

An internal structure based on job-related information provides both managers and employees with what?

Answer 15

> provides both managers and employees with a work-related rationale for pay differences.

Question 16

In compensation, job analysis has two critical uses:

Answer 16

(1) it establishes similarities and differences in the work content of jobs and

(2) it helps establish an internally fair and aligned job structure.

Question 17

What is a job family?

Answer 17

Grouping of related jobs with broadly similar content: e.g. marketing, engineering, office support, technical

Question 18

What is a job?

Answer 18

Group of tasks performed by one person that make up the total work assignment of that person e.g. customer support rep

Question 19

What is a task?

Answer 19

> Smallest unit of analysis; a specific statement of what a person does; i.e. answers the telephone.

> Similar tasks can be grouped into a task dimension, i.e. responsible for ensuring that accurate information is provided to the customer

Question 20

Job analysis usually collects information about:

Answer 20

> specific tasks
specific behaviours

Question 21

A typical analysis starts with:

Answer 21

> a typical analysis starts with a review of information already collected to develop a framework for further analysis. (i.e. job title, major duties, task dimensions, and workflow info)

Question 22

Generally, a good job analyst collects sufficient information to adequately do what? What is the information that is collected used for?

Answer 22

> to adequately identify, define, and describe a job.

> The information is categorized as “related to the job” or “related to the employee.”

Question 23

What data is collected for job identification?

Answer 23

> Title,
department in which the job is located,
number of people who hold the job

Question 24

What data is collected for job content?

Answer 24

> task and activities
effort (physical, mental, emotional)
constraints on actions
performance criteria
critical incidents
conflicting demands
working conditions
roles (i.e. negotiator, monitor, leader)

Question 25

Data that is collected in regards to the employee:

Answer 25

> employee characteristics
internal relationships
external relationships
professional/technical knowledge
manual skills
verbal skills
written skills
quantitative skills
mechanical skills
coneceptual skills
managerial skills
leadership skills
interpersonal skills
manager and other superiors
peers
subordinates
Suppliers
Customers
Regulatory bodies
Professional/industry
Community
Union/employee groups

Question 26

Job titles, departments, and the number of people who hold the job are examples of what?

Answer 26

> information that identifies a job.

Question 27

What is the heart of job analysis?

Answer 27

> Job Data: Content

Question 28

What is job content data?

Answer 28

> ob content data involve the elemental tasks or units of work, with emphasis on the purpose of each task

Question 29

In Canada, it is very important to collect information relating to what?

Answer 29

> In Canada, it is very important to collect information relating to pay equity legislation.

> In particular, thorough information about the skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions of each job is essential.

Question 30

In practice, many employers are finding it difficult to justify the time and expense of collecting task-level information - why?

Answer 30

> particularly for flexible jobs with frequently changing tasks.

Question 31

What is one way to increase flexibility in a job analysis?

Answer 31

> Using broad, generic descriptions that cover a large number of related tasks closer to the job-family level

Question 32

The most common way to collect job information is to:

Answer 32

> is to ask the people who are doing a job to fill out a questionnaire.

Question 33

1) The advantage of conventional questionnaires and interviews is:
2) What is the downside to this approach?

Answer 33

> is that the involvement of employees increases their understanding of the process.

> However, the results are only as good as the people involved.

> The whole process is open to bias and favouritism

Question 34

Given the result of the potential subjectivity, as well as the huge amount of time the process takes, conventional methods have given way to what methods?

Answer 34

> given way to more quantitative (and systematic) data collection.

Question 35

Increasingly, an analyst will direct jobholders to a website where they complete what questionnaire?

Answer 35

> Increasingly, an analyst will direct jobholders to a website where they complete a questionnaire online.

> Such an approach is characterized as quantitative job analysis, because statistical analysis of the results is possible.

> In addition to facilitating statistical analysis of the results, quantitative data collection allows more data to be collected faster.

Question 36

What do quantitative questionnaires involve?

Answer 36

> A quantitative questionnaire typically asks jobholders to assess whether each item is or is not part of their job. If it is, they are asked to rate how important it is and the amount of job time spent on it

> the results can be used to develop a profile of the job.

> Questions can be grouped around compensable factors (discussed in Chapter 5) such as skill and working conditions. Skill can be further subcategorized as formal qualifications, education, experience, occupational skills, and management skills.

> If more than one person is doing a particular job, results of several people in the job can be compared or averaged to develop the profile. Profiles can be compared across jobholders in the same or in different jobs.

Question 37

Some consulting firms have developed what kind of inventories?

Answer 37

> Some consulting firms have developed quantitative inventories they can tailor to the needs of a specific organization or to a specific family of jobs, such as data/information processing jobs

Question 38

Who is best to collect job information?

Answer 38

> the analysis is best done by someone thoroughly familiar with the organization and its jobs and trained in how to do the analysis properly.

Question 39

The decision regarding the source of the data (jobholders, supervisors, and/or analysts) hinges on what?

Answer 39

> hinges on how to ensure consistent, accurate, and acceptable data.

Question 40

Who are principal sources of job data and why are they considered principal?

Answer 40

> Expertise about the work resides with the jobholders and supervisors; hence, they are the principal sources.

Question 41

For key managerial/professional jobs who are the key sources?

Answer 41

> For key managerial/professional jobs, supervisors at two levels above have also been suggested as valuable sources, because they may have a more strategic view of the way jobs fit in the overall organization.

Question 42

The number of incumbents per job from which to collect data probably varies with what?

Answer 42

> probably varies with the stability of the job, as well as with the ease of collecting the information.

Question 43

An ill-defined or changing job will require either the involvement of what?

Answer 43

> more respondents or a more careful selection of respondents.

Question 44

Although in theory, supervisors ought to know the jobs well, they may not, particularly if what and when an employee does what?

Answer 44

> particularly if the jobs are changing or ill-defined.

> People actually working in a job may change it, perhaps by finding ways to do things more efficiently, or perhaps because they may not realize that certain tasks are supposed to be part of their job.

Question 45

How should discrepancies be handled when collecting job data?

Answer 45

> The answer is: collect more data.

> Enough data are required to ensure consistent, accurate, useful and acceptable results.

> Holding a meeting of multiple jobholders and supervisors in a focus group to discuss discrepancies, then asking both employees and supervisors to sign off on the revised results, will help ensure agreement, or at least understanding, of the results.

> Disagreement can be an opportunity to clarify expectations, learn about better ways to do the job, and document how the job is actually performed.

> In general, the more unusual the job, the more sources of data are required.

Question 46

In addition to involvement by job analysts, jobholders, and their supervisors, support of what constituent group is essential?

Answer 46

> support of top management and unions is essential.

> They must be alerted to the cost of a thorough job analysis, its time-consuming nature, and the fact that changes may result after it is completed.

> If top management and unions are not willing to carry through, or at least to seriously consider any changes suggested by the job analysis, the process will probably not be worth the bother and expense.

Question 47

What is a job description?

Answer 47

> That summary of the job is the job description.

Question 48

What are job specifications?

Answer 48

> a list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics necessary to perform a job

Question 49

To avoid starting from scratch (if writing a job description for the first time) or as a way to cross-check externally, it can be useful to do what?

Answer 49

> it can be useful to refer to generic job descriptions that have not yet been tailored to a specific organization.

> One readily accessible source is the National Occupational Classification (NOC), put together by the federal government every five years.

Question 50

In addition to defining and describing jobs, descriptions of managerial/professional jobs often include what?

Answer 50

> often include more detailed information about the nature of the job, its scope, and accountability.

Question 51

Professional/managerial job descriptions must capture what?

Answer 51

> Professional/managerial job descriptions must capture the relationship between the job, the person performing it, and the organization objectives—how the job fits into the organization, the results expected, and what the person performing it brings to the job.

Question 52

The final step in the job analysis process is to:

Answer 52

> The final step in the job analysis process is to verify the accuracy of the resulting job descriptions

Question 53

What is involved in the verification process?

Answer 53

> Verification often involves the jobholders as well as their supervisors to determine whether the proposed job description is accurate and complete.

> The description is discussed, line by line, with the analyst, taking note of any omissions, ambiguities, or needed clarifications (often an excruciating and thankless task).

> Outside sources of job descriptions, such as the NOC, can also be used as a reference.

Question 54

What is offshoring?

Answer 54

> Offshoring refers to the movement of jobs to locations beyond home-country borders.

Question 55

What jobs are most susceptible to offshoring? Has that changed?

Answer 55

> Historically, manual, low-skill jobs have been most susceptible to offshoring, as there are substantial differences in hourly compensation cost across countries for manufacturing workers.

> Increasingly, susceptibility to offshoring is no longer limited to low-skill jobs. White-collar jobs are also being outsourced.

Question 56

Jobs with low susceptibility to outsourcing include what?

Answer 56

> Jobs with low susceptibility to outsourcing include managerial positions, positions in which local knowledge is required (e.g., marketing managers who need to know consumer preferences in particular regions of the world), or positions in which being on the ground (literally, in the case of landscape architects) is necessary.

Question 57

Some jobs are also susceptible to automation, especially those that are :

Answer 57

> highly routinized

Question 58

What is reliability?

Answer 58

> Reliability is a measure of the consistency of results among various analysts, various methods, various sources of data, or over time. Reliability is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for validity.

Question 59

What is validity?

Answer 59

> Validity is the extent to which a process such as job analysis measures what it claims to measure.

Question 60

If jobholders and managers are dissatisfied with the initial data collected or with the process, they are not likely to do what?

Answer 60

> they are not likely to buy into either the resulting job structure or the pay rates eventually attached to that structure.

Question 61

To be valid, acceptable, and useful (see below), job information must be:

Answer 61

Up to date.

Question 62

When is a job analysis useful?

Answer 62

> If job analysis does this in a reliable, valid, and acceptable way, and can be used to make pay decisions, then it is useful.

> Usefulness refers to the usefulness of the information collected.

Question 63

Why should employers bother with job analysis?

Answer 63

> Because work-related information is needed to determine pay, and differences in work determine pay differences.

> There is no satisfactory substitute that can ensure that the resulting pay structure will be work-related or will provide reliable, accurate data to make and explain pay decisions.

Question 64

How much detail is needed to make these pay decisions?

Answer 64

> The answer is: Enough to help set individual employees’ pay, encourage continuous learning, increase the experience and skill of the workforce, and minimize the risk of pay-related grievances.

Question 65

What are two hallmarks of an internal pay structure?

Answer 65

> Encouraging employee behaviours that help achieve an organization’s objectives and fostering a sense of fairness among employees are two hallmarks of a useful internal pay structure.